In many communications systems, a centralized controller element communicates with one or more distributed endpoints via one or more communications channels that provide a communications medium. Unless that medium is a closed point-to-point transmission channel, the system must employ some form of a shared media access technique to allow multiple endpoints to communicate to the centralized controller. For typical configurations, these types of shared medium connection systems provide a single controller to mediate access to the channel used by numerous client endpoints.
One such type of communications system is a passive optical network (PON). A PON is a type of fiber optic access network. Specifically, passive optical networking may be used in what the industry refers to as the “last mile,” i.e., the portion of a telecommunications network that actually connects to a residence of an end user, e.g., a home. A typical PON uses an unpowered optical splitter/combiner to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises. A typical PON implementation may provide access to network communications via optical fiber to home users.